Blood, Sweat and Spandex: Indie Wrestlers Do It for Fans

EVANSVILLE, Indiana — Local teenager Dave Smith hauled carloads of kids to the Soldiers and Sailors War Memorial Coliseum every week in the early 1950s to watch live wrestling. Now 74 years old, Smith still rarely misses a match and gets a $2 senior discount on the $10 admission.

Before wrestling became a TV business, every big name did battle at the Coliseum — Steve Austin and Randy Savage among them. For some locals, that excitement never faded.

Every Wednesday night, fans of the scripted but nonetheless brutal violence line up outside the Coliseum an hour before showtime. Though it's unlikely to sell out, the premium seats fill up fast. In line, people greet each other by name and swap jokes. Many, like Smith, are longtime fans if not quasi-lifers.

"The Coliseum has 882 seats, and I would love to see them full," says wrestler Buzz Dupp, a Nashville transplant to Evansville. "I know I won’t make the WWE [World Wrestling Entertainment] or TNA [Total Nonstop Action] but I would love to wrestle when this place is full. It has a lot of history."

The wrestlers themselves range from students of the Jamie Dundee School of Wrestling, also held at the Coliseum, to independent contractors who battle their way from small towns to large cities three or four nights a week. Named wrestlers can earn up to $400 a night, while the others can earn as little as $5. Many are college students or have part-time jobs.

Spectators at the Coliseum are rarely more than a few rows away from the action, and at least once during the night there is a good chance the fight will spill out into the crowd. The metal barrier and security people are there to protect the wrestlers from enthusiastic fans as much as the other way around. The venue's relatively small size is a crowd pleaser, even if the wrestlers would prefer to see a bigger draw.

This is the life that was portrayed so unforgivingly in 2008's The Wrestler, which brought renewed attention and interest to untelevised matches like those at the Coliseum. Some wrestlers feel that the movie gave away too much. Sometimes "smart marks" will call out a wrestler's next moves and burst the bubble of disbelief, while other fans expect a level of physical abuse that some of the more extreme scenes in the movie portray. But because of these details, the movie nails the dedication and hardship that the sport requires of the athletes.

They don't ever expect to be featured on Friday Night SmackDown, win a Slammy Award or — in some cases — even get paid, but they show up every week and give it their all. Come take a peek into some of the grueling, outrageous and ultimately charming hometown heroes of our favorite theatrical medium.

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Die-Hard Fans

It is an hour before the doors open and another half-hour before the wrestling begins, but Joni Cundiff, Ann Kratzer and Penny Lowe are there to be sure they get a front row seat. CCW stands for Coliseum Championship Wrestling. Built in 1916, the Coliseum is also home to the Downtown Rotary Club and Demolition City Roller Derby, one of the two flat-track roller-derby teams in the city.

Historic Hall

In the 1950s the Evansville Coliseum was filled with wrestling fans and in the '80s it attracted wrestlers who went on to be nationally famous.

"Anybody that is anybody in wrestling has been through this building," says Buzz Dupp, including Jerry Lawlor, Bill Dundee “and Hulk Hogan before he was Hulk Hogan.”

Facing Off

Wrestler Juicy Juicy Jimmy Fletcher, left, keeps his distance from Matt Maverick as they size each other up during the beginning of the first match of Coliseum Championship Wrestling. Juicy Juicy has been wrestling for nine years.

"The day I graduated from High School I paid for my training," he says. He wrestles four or five nights a week traveling from Indiana to North Carolina.

Mid-Air Collision

Nobody believes Juicy Juicy's announced weight of 185 pounds, but he still manages to fly through the air with Matt Maverick after they collide in the middle of the ring.

At the end of the match Maverick will head backstage were he also runs sound for the event.

Tough Trio

Alister Fear pulls Lone Star off Micus Silva as the wrestlers fight a three-man free-for-all that creates shifting alliances of two against one.

Gut Reactions

Dana Mitchell, Tina Hatfield and Tammy Walker recoil with disgust, and Charlie Bass looks on as the wrestler Juicy Juicy Jimmy Fletcher humiliates his opponent by smothering him in layers of flesh.

Double Whammy

Angela DeBella barely has time to catch her breath after a hard slam to the mat. Mickie Knuckles comes right back at her with both feet.

Wikipedia's page for Mickie Knuckles states that, "She is most notable for her hard-hitting style and inter-gender death matches."

Making an Exit

Injured in the featured cage match, the Manitoba Maniac is carried out of the arena by security.

He's one of 16 wrestlers who fought their way out of a chain-link cage and into the main ring, all while wrestling until one man is left.

Down, But Not Out

After the match spills out of the ring, Buzz Dupp lies bloody from an assault with a chair.

An independent contractor, Dupp travels from Michigan to Florida wrestling three or four nights a week. Wrestling "hurts, but the drive time is what really bothers you," he says.

Hecklers

Alyssa Rainey is only 9 years old, but she knows what a low-down cheating snake Lone Star is, and is quick to show her disapproval.

Alyssa doesn't always get to attend Wednesday wrestling, but her mother Melinda rarely misses it. "This and bingo every now and then is all I do, " says Melinda Rainey. " I can scream and yell and then go home."

Winding Down

At the end of the night, as the fans leave by the front door and the wrestlers leave by the back, a crew quickly tears down the six-sided ring so the Coliseum can be set up for Friday night bingo.

David Kemp examines his Jamie "J.C. Ice" Dundee–autographed photo as he waits for a ride home from a friend on the CCW crew. Kemp started coming to the Coliseum in 1975 and has seen Jerry Lawlor, Bill Dundee, and Rock and Roll Explosion all wrestle in his local ring.